Sportmaster International

Miami, FL - Last year’s Miami runner-up Ivan Ljubicic was a straight-set quarterfinal winner Thursday at the $3.45 million Sony Ericsson Open — the second of nine ATP Masters Series events this year.The seventh-seeded Ljubicic got past 23rd-seeded Argentine Juan Ignacio Chela 6-3, 7-5 at Crandon Park. The big-serving Croat will meet Argentine qualifier Guillermo Canas Friday night in the semifinals. Canas picked up a 7-6 (7-5), 6-1 win over sixth-seeded Spaniard Tommy Robredo Thursday evening.Ljubicic converted on his second match point of

the day against Chela after 1 hour, 30 minutes of tennis. The big Croat launched 14 aces and broke the Argentine’s serve three times en route to victory.The 28-year-old Ljubicic is now a commanding 6-0 lifetime versus Chela.Ljubicic will appear in his fourth semifinal in seven events so far this season. He’s already performed in three finals in 2007, going 1-2.Canas, who shocked Roger Federer in the last two ATP events, including here on Tuesday in three sets, had a difficult time finishing off the first set against Robredo, but blew away his opponent in the second.Robredo fought off a total of four set points to get to the tiebreaker and was tied 3-3 before Canas finally broke serve. Canas was 0-for-8 in break point chances through the first 12 games of the match, but he finally found a groove and took advantage of some unforced errors.Robredo won two straight points to get to 5-5 in the tiebreak, but then hit a pair of returns wide to give the opening set to Canas. The second set was a rout, with Canas winning the first four games.Canas, who has already won the Brasil Open this year, is trying to become the first qualifier to win a tournament since Albert Portas in Hamburg in 2001.Friday’s other semi will pit 10th-seeded Serbian Novak Djokovic against 12th- seeded Brit Andy Murray, as those two young stars eliminated French Open champ Rafael Nadal and U.S. Open runner-up Andy Roddick, respectively, on Wednesday.© 2007 The Sports Network